The present invention relates to a vane compressor for compressing a refrigerant or like material.
A vane compressor is already known e.g., from U.S. Pat. No. 2,522,824 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,846 which is of the type including a rotary shaft arranged to be rotated by an associated prime mover; a rotor secured to said rotary shaft for rotation in unison therewith and having a plurality of slits formed in an outer peripheral surface thereof; a plurality of vanes radially movably inserted in said slits; and a pump housing with its interior formed as an endless cam surface accomodating said rotor and said vanes, the rotor, the vanes and the pump housing cooperating to define pump working chambers between them; a casing enclosing said pump housing in a fashion defining a discharge pressure chamber between the pump housing and the casing, whereby rotation of the rotor causes a refrigerant introduced in the pump working chambers to be pressurized for delivery outside the casing via the discharge pressure chamber.
The refrigerant contains a lubricating oil dispersed therein for lubrication of sliding machine parts of the compressor. The lubricating oil is discharged from the compressor together with the refrigerant and is fed to an evaporator and a condenser associated with the compressor. However, some of the lubricating oil stays in the evaporator and the condenser, causing a reduction in the heat transfer rate of these units. To prevent this, conventionally an oil separating element made of wire gauze is mounted on the inlet of the discharge pressure chamber. However, such conventional type oil separator does not effectively separate the oil from the refrigerant, particularly when used in an apparatus having a high rotational speed and accordingly a high oil consumption such as a vane compressor. In addition, it is heavy in weight and requires a rather high manufacturing cost.